Ground Delay Programs to Address Weather Within En Route Flow Constrained Areas

Abstract

This paper investigates an operational concept to control the take off time and route selection of a set of aircraft constrained by en route weather. The concept is based on current airport Ground Delay Program (GDP) procedures. However, instead of controlling the amount of traffic arriving into an airport, we extend the GDP to control the number of aircraft flying into and around en route Flow Constrained Areas (FCAs), which are used to manage the airspace impacted by weather. Because of this relationship with traditional GDPs, we refer to the problem as an FCA-based GDP. We develop new algorithms to assess the FCA-based GDP for an operational scenario. A routing and scheduling algorithm includes ground-delay, route selection, and airborne holding as decision variables for departing and en route flights, and is also designed to align with a Collaborative Decision Making (CDM) philosophy. A dynamic FCA capacity-estimation algorithm uses weather forecast information to produce time-varying entry and exit points as well as maximum flow rates through FCAs. Integration of these algorithms enables assessment of the value of improved weather forecast accuracy, and provides insights into the nature of robust traffic management initiatives.